Physical Activity and Aging

In the late 1980s, the relationship between physical activity or exercise and aging was one of great contemporary interest. On the one hand there was a growing elderly population in industrialized societies seeking an active rather than a passive retirement, while on the other hand there was much current interest in the benefits to health of physical activity. The first edition of this book, published in 1978, was acknowledged as a major review of the field. In the years since its publication, however, there were many advances in our knowledge, made evident by the fact that this second edition, originally published in 1987, contains over 50 percent more references, 1840 in total. The author shows how far we…